Buck Magnet

I bowhunt for one reason, it is the reason that everybody does......

............to KILL and EAT a deer. Simple as that. Everything else is just icing on the cake. Being out in nature, watching the sunrise over the hills, relaxing, ect... it is just all icing on the cake.

BGfisher

I guess I'm just the opposite of Buckmagnet. I don't HAVE to kill to make it worth all the money and time spent. The time spent in the serenity of nature is payment enough for the money and effort spent. The actual killing of a deer is the candle on the icing on the cake. In fact, over the years there have been hundreds of deer I didn't shoot simply to give me another reason to go to the woods another day. I've passed up hundreds of deer over the years, bucks included, with no regrets.

ShadowAce

Thanks BGfisher. You put it into words better than I did. Sometimes I end up calling my hunting trips "hiking with weapons" but I enjoy them all the same.

ARMallardSlayer

Because I love it!!!!!!!!!!

Zelazny

I hunt to see the sun rise. I hunt to experience the silence of the woods, and the sounds of the same. I hunt to challenge myself, nothing like a rocky mtn elk hunt, way ,WAY back into the wilderness. I hunt to fill tags too. I hunt for meat, some days I hunt for trophies. I hunt to relax, to get away, to get retuned to what I feel I'm suppose to be. I hunt to be with friends and family and sit by campfires.

The KILL is a very small part of hunting. Its the focal point - but still a small part if that makes any sense.

NY Bowhunter

Dave H,
well put!! I think about that as well. In the dark everyone asleep. Seeing things non-hunters will never see. Sometimes I sit back and say "WOW".

I think when it comes down to it everyone here rants and whines about something at one time or another. Things that go wrong, things that piss them off, how they screwed up, etc............
When it comes down to it though, deep down inside we are all secretly loving it or we wouldn't be here. At the time when "unfortunate"things are happening throughout the season, it seems like the end of the world and you get all worked up about it. When you're sitting someplace in the middle of June thinking about the past season, you reflect on how awesome it reallly was.
My shining moment this year was that monster buck I spent 3 hours stalking only to blow it in the last 10 seconds about 25 yards away. I couldn't sleep for days. Sitting around with visions of his rack in my mind. Replaying it about 17 zillion times. Now over a month removed, it was an absolute awesome hunt and experience.
BOWHUNTING = THE ULTIMATE SPORT!!

Charlie P

I started bowhunting to get a few extra weeks in the woods. It's become so much more then that it hard to put it into words.

It's such a rush being able to fet so close to deer with out them be aware of your presence.With the gun you drop them with out that up close and personal contact. I get more excited having a deer come through and not shooting it with a bow then I do on many succesful gun hunts.

It's a great thing to hand down to your kids. My son is still a season away from being able to hunt with the bow. He's knowledge of the woods is better then many 50 yr. olds I know. Can't wait for our first hunt together. He's been tagging along with me since he was in the 2nd grade. It's given us a bond that I hope will never be broken.

It's as much fun as you can have.........................with your clothes on.lol.

Nope. Could kill enough deer during gun season to fill my freezer no problem. Bow hunting isn't all about the kill for me.Honestly didn't care if I got a deer with the bow this year. My back went out in July and really didn't think I'd be hunting. All I wanted to be able to do was get out in the woods with my kid and see some deer up close. There were days when it was warm that anything but a wall hanger was going to walk on by. I would have had to find someone to drag it out for me and hang it etc. It was all about the experience this year. Didn't realize how much it meant to me until opening day came this year and I was physically unable to get into the woods.

thundermug

Like others have said...I like to get up close and personal. When a deer is 10 feet away and has noidea he is about to become lunch. The meat tastes better when harvested before the gun hunters get there. Heck, I love bowhunting so much I even do it during general gun season.

PAhunter86

Longer seasons, less hunters on the public land, and its FUN!!

the jerseyhunter

Now thats the truth and the dare. To try to to go head to head with a breed of animal that has more knowledge of its surroundings, the quietness of a shadow, and tenacity for life, that cannot be equalled. Thats why I visit with them every chance I get. Sometimes I even get closer than they would prefer.